Attendance & Punctuality

On occasion, you may see in the news that parents have been able to remove their child for such reasons as holidays and family get-togethers during the school term.

As a school, we believe that term-time holidays can be disruptive to the learning, to the child involved, the other children in the class and to the teacher who is planning and differentiating lessons to enable all children to progress.

Research shows that regular school attendance is linked to higher achievement. Arriving at school on time each day will enable your child to make the most of the rich learning and social experiences that Kew Riverside has to offer.

You can help us promote good attendance and punctuality by:

Making sure that your child arrives in school promptly

Talking to us about any difficulties you may be experiencing getting your child to school

Making medical and dental appointments out of school hours

Contacting us to let us know if your child is going to be absent and explaining the reason for the absence

To help to encourage children to come to school and be on time, in full uniform, a raffle ticket is issued to children on Fridays who have achieved all three, all week. At the end of half term, a draw will be held and prizes given. We also celebrate 100% attendance and punctuality in our weekly assemblies.

It is essential that you contact the school office on the first day of your child’s absence and inform the staff of the reason for your child being away from school. If we do not hear from you by 9.30am on the first day of absence, you will be contacted by the school by telephone. It is important to keep your contact details up to date with us.

We have a duty to ensure that all absences are recorded as either ‘authorised’ or ‘unauthorised’. Absences can be authorised for illness, religious observance in the religion to which the parents belong, school visits, external examinations and other circumstances including family bereavement, at the discretion of the Headteacher. Please note that all holidays during term time will be recorded as ‘unauthorised’.

Requests for any absence, other than illness or medical appointments, must be notified in writing. You can do this in advance by completing the form at the end of the letter below. The request would be reviewed at a meeting with the Head teacher.

The form can be submitted by email to: info@kewriverside.richmond.sch.uk or in person to the school office. It will not be considered without a meeting with the Headteacher or a member of Leadership.

With the Education Welfare Service (EWS), we monitor our attendance and punctuality on a termly basis. If your child misses 7 or more sessions of school (1/2 day = 1 session), you will receive a letter notifying you of the low attendance and an opportunity to discuss the reasons further. Should your child’s attendance not improve, you will be invited to meet with the Headteacher to discuss reasons for your child’s poor attendance. Any further deterioration may trigger a referral to the Education Welfare Service (EWS).

Any attendance below 90% is automatically referred to the Education Welfare Service.

The same procedures, as outlined above, will apply to children who are persistently late arriving for school.